Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-06-20
DAILY HERALD.
THE TRAMP.
Familiar Figure on Los
Angeles Streets.
HE Is OPPOSED TO WORK
If He Labors He Thinks His Life
is in Danger.--One Way
of Living.

One Of the worst pests of modern CIV
ilization is the genus tramp. He is the
u,riah of society, a wsnderer who goeth
ABOUT seeking what he may devour.
Disappearing in the most mysterious
manner during the heat of the day, he
never fails to turn up fresh and hearty
at meal time, when he shows to what
fine point he has reduced his profession
by the selection of his ''strike." Wood.
piles are his worst enemies, as in most
cases an appeal for food is followed by
an introduction to an axe, and an in
junction to exercise himself a little.
Los Angeles seems to be the Mecca of
these wandering Bedouins and during
the day they may be seen in all their
splendor sitting on the steps of the court
house and indulging in philosophical
criticisms of everything that may at
tract their attention.
'sPlease sir, have you got quarter you
can spare poor fellow who hasn't had
nothing to eat to-day" was the first IN
timation the writer had Yesterday
afternoon of an assail from the
shafts of one of these wan.
deripg gentry. Turning, he
saw q fresh, healthy looking young man
of not more than 26 years of age, who
was respectfully pulling his forelock and
endeavoring to comfort his features into
an expression of great distress. His cos
tune was ''fearfully and wonderfully
made" He wore Prince Albert coat
that had apparently passed through the
worst stages of o revolution, and the
degage appearance of his cravat
was evidently in imitation OF
the style usually accredited to
Byron. The relic of straw hat coy-
cred head of frowsy-looking hair and at
his other extremity one or two red toes
were struggling to free themselves from
the trammels of pair of well-worn base
ball shoes. Thinking it good oppor-
tunity to get some information that
might possibly serve to vile away a
few moments for the readers OF the
HERALD, the writer made the man
proposition which was Immediately ac'
cepted. The tramp agreed to furnish
some truthful information about the
modus operandi of his fellow.craftsmen
and his own story is the best manner OF
telling what followed.
"Well, sir, we don't have such good
time as most people seem to think.
Many's the day that we so without get
ting bite OF anything to eat; of course
that's when we're on the road. In
city like this it's no trick to get all the
chuck fellow wants. Talk about hard
ships, you people don't know what they
are. Why, last summer, when me and
Orange Pete was heading for California,
we'd been having fat time in FL
Psso but they got onto us and we had
to skip out; but I'll tell you about that
afterwards. Well, we got out of Tucson
comfortable enough, on the brakes, but
after time the brakees got onto us and
fired us off right in the middle of the
desert. 1t was blazing hot and we
hadn't got drop of water with us, and
l tell you we liked to have died before
we got to Maricopa. Pete was for cav
ing in once or twice, but | made
him stick to it, aud l wouldn't
20 through that days experience again
if they offered to make me President of
the United States after it was over. But
/ must tell you about the Ell Paso dodge.
You see in that town there's lots of
prospectors come in busted and get
grub stak ed by store.keepers and such
folks in town, and then start out in the
mountains again. You know what
grub stalking is, don't you?-a fellow has
to give half OF what he strikes to the
fellow who stakes him, and in return he
gets an outfit of coffee, beans and
bacon-generally stuff enough to last
him about three months. Well, I'd got
a pretty good suit Of clothes, so went
round town and did the prospector
racket. / had my pockets filled with
some pretty good specimens I'd got
from an old miner, and the people in
town was quite stuck on them. l
worked big liquor dealer for good
stake, and he gave me S. in cash
as we'll as the chuck, and Oft /
started. But l didn't 60 into the noun
tains; that wasn't my racket. l met
Pete Just outside town and we went up
the river about twenty miles, near a
place called Chamborino that was nice
and quiet and there we camped. We
had bully time then, lying round all
day and doing nothing except when meal
time came round. When the stores ran
low, headed for town again, struck
my man, showed him some fresh speci-
mems and gave him glowing account of
a layout that I'd struck, and worked it
so W ell that he gave me twenty to get
some Mexican laborers to help me on
the prospect. bought lot of booze
and struck out for the camp, and me
and Pete got gloriously drunk that
night drinking his health. Next day,
though, when we we was sleeping OIL
the effects of our booze, felt some one
kicking me in the ribs, and when looked
up it nigh scar I'd me to death to see my
grub.staker standing over me. | tried to
explain matters to him, but it wouldn't
90. aud he trotted US over to Cham
boripo at the point of his gun, and they
locked US up in an old adobe prison.
But it wasn't the first time we'd been IN
the Jug, and an old shanty like that
couldn't hold us, for we broke out that
night, and skipped up country just the
best " e knew how. 1t wouldn't have been
healthy to stay round that district any
longer, SO we headed for California, and
we've been here ever since.
Say, did you ever notice at the rail.
road depots any names cut in on the
freight. house doors and round the plat
forms? Well, that the tramp's register.
When he comes in town he carves his
name somewhere round the depot, and
the date of his arrival, aud if there's
any of his pals round town
they know where to find
him. When he quits town he cuts in
Bound for Frisco, or wherever he's
going, and the date he starts, and that's
the way we keep track Of each other.
Some fellows can travel almost on pas
senger time when they're bound any
where. bat then they have to be old
hands at the business. When the news
got to Frisco that Grant had died, there
was about 200 of us chaps struck right
out for New York, cos we knew there'd
be good times at the funeral, and some